This is too much. AP, and clearly the White House, are viewing the fact that the UAE owned company is "asking" for a review to be a positive step for Bush. A gift? We're talking national security here, folks. The Bush team is trying to be clever here, but they make their guy look emasculated:
The White House got a gift in the ports security debate, a chance for the president to sidestep a battle with members of his own party and to tone down bipartisan criticism of the deal.This episode should once and for all put an end to the idea that Bush is a leader who can deal with keeping his country safe. He ignored the warnings that Al Qaeda was going to attack in the U.S. He has completely screwed up in Iraq. The response to Katrina was a catastrophic disaster. Now, Bush is letting a foreign country "save" him from a major political scandal because his administration put economic concerns before national security.
The offer by Dubai-owned DP World to submit to a broader review of security issues in its deal to take over major operations at six U.S. ports also could salvage a business deal critically important to its economic future.
We'll have to see if the wimpy traditional media buys this one. They're used to being spoon fed story lines from Karl Rove.
And, it will be interesting to watch all those GOPers on the Hill, starting with Bill Frist, parrot the White House lines -- even though they know this is a political loser. Every step the Bush team takes on this makes them all look worse. But, hey, they're the ones who wanted to make national security a big political issue this year. And, the GOP has basically ignored port security. Karl Rove and the GOP wanted a political debate. Have at it.
